A union of planets and moons claimed by various semi autonomous governments. The federation was formed GY-809-CA(-458) by the Canthian Union, the government of the Atan system. It is a full member of the Delta Pact and a major power in terms of economic and military might, and has the largest sentient population in DOIA. The federation currently claims the majority of five regions: Cascade, Cradle, Shade, Adea and Frontier. It's capital is the city of Tesra on the planet Canthia.

The Federation is dominated by the descendants of Arthian survivors on Canthia, who later expanded across space, conquering smaller hostile powers and absorbing friendly ones. While the federation includes a large number of planets not originally inhabited by Canthians, they can be found in large numbers on most worlds and dominate planets colonised by the Canthian Union prior to the Federations founding. Only about 35% of the planets currently inhabited by the Federation where inhabited when the Canthians discovered them. The Federations culture is a blend of pre-expansion Canthian culture and other Arthian-descendant member cultures.

The Canthian Federation founded the Delta Pact dominates it territorially and militarily, holding the most regions and having the largest armed forces. Canthian space borders four of the Delta Omega Iota Alliance's great enemies: the Sekhtokrun, the Razarihm, the Tyr Empire and the Planet Eaters, and it is heavily involved in the ongoing wars with all four, as well as the war with the Kankaar in the east.

Map

History

Creation

Government

The federation is a hybrid democratic and meritocratic government built on a tiered system of councils. Most planets and moons are ruled by a Prime Councillor, usually referred to as just a "Prime", who is advised and partially controlled by a council. On nearly all worlds smaller areas are also ruled over by councils subservient to the planetary or lunar government. A small number of worlds still retain different governing systems set up before they joined the Federation. If a system has more than one inhabited moon or planet then a second Prime and council, which rules the whole system, is set up. Systems, moons and planets are free to set their own laws, providing they do not contradict Federal laws or the federal constitution, but are ultimately answerable to the High Council of their region, which holds the power of veto over all councils below it. These High councils are similarly autonomous but under the command of the Federal Supreme Council and the Federal President. Areas currently occupied by the military are under the command of an officer appointed by the Supreme Commander and the High Commander's Council who are also subservient to the Supreme Council. The current Federal President is Lyssa Vald.

Each Upper Council is made up of 9 members, 4 democratically elected councillors, 4 meritocratically appointed councillors and a Prime Councillor, elected by the members of the council. If the council commands any lower ranked councils, or has has sub councils, then two of the elected councillors are selected by the Lower Council(See below), and the other two are elected by the council's citizens. Otherwise all four are elected by the citizens. Elected councillors are chosen by simple system in which every citizen under the council's Jurisdiction gets four votes. They may use any number of their four votes but cannot vote for the same nominee twice. The two or four nominees with the largest number of votes get the council positions. Two of the meritocratic councillors are appointed by the council's commanding council, and two by members of the council itself. In the case of the Supreme Council, two of the members are appointed by the President. The High Commander's council is made up of the high commander's of the seven branches and lead by the Supreme Commander. All the commanders are meritocratically appointed by the council itself.
Although councils have control over the councils which rank below them, the control is not total. A second council, the Lower Council is able to overrule the Higher Council in certain situations. The Lower Council is formed from the Primes of the councils that the Higher Council has control over. If the number of Primes exceeds 9, then the 9 longest serving Prime are chosen. If there are less than 9 Primes, then they are able nominate to members of their councils to be voted into the council. The Lower Council is able to appeal any Higher Council appointment not made by themselves through the Federal Court.

Demography

Over 30 different sentient species have more than one million citizens of the federation, with 95% of the population Orikyan and 83% Arthian. Approximately 67% of Canthian citizens trace their ancestors back to the original Canthians. There is a significant Sekht population, of about 350 billion, formed primarily from those liberated from Sekhtokrun, and many of these have become fully integrated into Canthian society. All the different beings who hold Federation citizenship are referred to as Canthians, despite the fact less than 5% were born on the planet Canthia.

Culture

While Canthian culture is varied, and blended with many other cultures that it has absorbed over the centuries, the core remains true to the first mixture of the Canth and Aia'n peoples

Art

Representational art is by far the most common style among Canthians, and the "modern art" popular in many other cultures is viewed with confusion and bemusement by many Canthians.

Literature

Unlike the Arthian culture that preceded it, poetry and, to a lesser extent, lyrical music is viewed with disdain by much of the Canthian population. Several famous poets and song writers, such as Kasrasak and Gest Mistanor, have gained some popularity by these are eclipsed by giants such as Brakarast and Gentaromet and other writers of fictional prose. This is often seen as another sign of the practical focus that dominates much of Cnathian society: prose is seen as a more efficient way of conveying ideas.

Language

Officially Canthian s the official language of the federation, and the vast majority of it's citizens do speak it fluently. It is complex language that has developed from a regional dialect of Cascade Arthian, spoken by the Canthmen, and Corrupted High Arthian, spoken by the Aians. While both based on the same core Arthian grammar rules and vocabulary the two languages varied greatly in pronunciation and spelling. This has lead to an interesting blend of hard and soft sounds.

For over 250 years nearly all Canthians have been taught NeoArthian, a similar but far more widely spread language. In many cases NeoArthian and Canthian are close enough for a speaker of one to understand the other, and Canthian is constantly moving closer to NeoArthian as the cultures of the Delta pact's factions grow closer together. Canthian has effectively become a dialect of NeoArthian over the last few decades and many speak pure NeoArthian, with a Canthian accent, as their primary language.

Recently, Standard, the language created for communication between all DOIA members has begun being taught in schools, but it is only spoken fluently by about 12% of the population.

Fashion

Most Canthian fashion has developed from the need to protect one self from the low temperatures found for most of the year on Canthia. While colonisation of other planets and technological developments have made this need for warm clothing nearly obselete for the last millennium or so, it has remained a defining factor of popular Canthian styles. Large coats, hooded jumpers and sturdy boots are common in both male and female clothing. Revealing clothing is particularly rare compared to other, similarly developed, races. This is not to say that the race is not interested in sex, but that it's culture greatly respects the idea of personal space and personal privacy.

Media

The Grid, the largest internet in the known universe originated in Canthia and dominates the media of most of the factions in DOIA. With their headstart, several large Canthian companies are major players in interfactional media. Tesran Galactic News(TGN) is largest news broadcasting corporation on the Grid and operates news hub sites in 70 different languages. Canthia Media Networks(CMN) operates a vast network of grid TV and radio stations across the federation and into other factions.

Music

In an odd break from the norms found in Post Arthian societies, by far the most popular music in the Canthian Federation is of the instrumental variety. The music scene is largely split into Classical, using physical instruments with limited or no electronics, and Comtemporary, which uses entirely virtual instruments or electronically augmented physical ones. Both flavours enjoy great popularity and are split into many genres, including an increasing number which mix the two approaches. Singers, rather than singing lyrics, will often use their voices an as extra instrument.

Science, Engineering and Innovation

Canthian Scientists and Engineers are credited with many of the most important discoveries of our age and much of the modern technology used, particulary within the Delta Pact, is of Canthian origin: